Wedding recommendations!

Littleone_2

Hello all, so I'm not getting married until spring 2009 but already my head is pickled with the enormity of everything that will need done, that is why I am looking around now for ideas on how to save a few pennies.

So far Ive decided im going to get a m&s cake and try and get anything that I can online cheaper however I am stuck for any recommendations on reasonable photographers/wedding cars/florists so any help would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers!

CL

I got my bridesmaid's dresses online from America. I had looked over here and the ones that I liked were all about £300 each. I picked the ones I liked here and ordered them from https://www.houseofbrides.com for $160 each.

With the dollar rate being $2 to £1 at the minute it is a huge saving. The only reason I did not get my dress from them was I had never heard of anyone using them and was afraid that I might get conned. The dresses arrived and were perfect, exactly the same as those I had seen in a bridal shop here for £300.

D.A.

We had our wedding photos taken by Cunningham Photography in Antrim. Much cheaper (and much friendlier) than a lot of the well-known wedding photographers!

But as always, take a look at his sample photos when you meet him and make your own mind up.

http://www.btinternet.com/~cunninghamphotography/

LilMissEmmylou

Do you have any family or friends who are into photography? They could do your photos as a gift for you?

Make your own invites, table plans etc

wedding car wise do you know anyone with funky or pretty cars? ask them to help you out for the day? ive seen a few peple do "mini" wedding cars and they looked great!

CL

I got prices for invitations, order of service, etc and they were £400-£500. I made my own and the materials cost £100. You can get matching card, paper & envelopes from any of the big stationery supplies companies that supply businesses (such as UBE) much cheaper than from somewhere like Craftworld.

There is also a little shop on North street in Belfast called Kozo that will give you a demonstration on how to make the invitations and you can buy the stamps etc. from them (or better still borrow them from someone who has already done it.)

arkonite_babe

My wedding invites are M&S ones, my cake will be M&S or the Tesco iced one, they are devine.
Dad and Uncle doing photography, dress from TK Maxx (I want something I can wear again). Meal for afters at a local restaurant (there's only 18 of us!) No flowers or buttonholes. Organised in 2 weeks, 08.08.07 I'm ready

rjh090384

casamiento brides in swatragh were amzing for my accessories. got my bridesmaid dress reduced down to £35 veil was £25 or £30 tiara reduced from £97 to £45 adn shoes for £30. absolute bargain and well worth the extra mileage.
got my wedidng dress in wedding box in ards off the rack (perfect samply with no flaws) from £750 to £300.
got my jewellery handmade for me throguh a retailer on etsy.com (amazing site) for £40 for earrings necklace adn bracelet including shipping from alaska.
hired a subaru impreza turbo from donnelly for £100 plus £40 insurance.
got wine from tescos adn negotiated a bit on corkage with the hotel.
lots of other bargains to be had. shout if you need anymore advice.

rjh090384

oh invites...something special in bangor hand coloured in for my colour schemer were 0.95 each and relaly took the hassle out of it for me!

rjh090384

sorry i keep remembering more things. i got my flowers form country blossoms in donaghadee adn for my bouquet, my bridesmaids, four button holes, three large bouquets for gifts, 20 long stemmed gerberas and 3 cake arrangements was a grand total of £160!!! they were amazing and lovely and i couldnt have hoped for anything better!

rjh090384

oh and my wedding came in at £100 under budget in the end at £3000!!we had 70 guests

Willspireite

Congrats on the wedding ... it'll be class!

My wife and I got married in Aug 2005 and we tried to cut as many costs as possible, so a friend drove the car (he knew the local Merc dealer so that worked really well!) ... if you know someone who has a car you like, maybe ask them?

For reception we hired a hall out ... grass at the back, and made it into a festival ... so we got a bouncy castle in, sumo suits too ... and did a bbq. We'd put some good friends in charge of that ... so it meant they bought all the stuff for us (we gave them the money like ... just took pressure away!) Was handy as we went to a couple of factory stores ... Dungannon Meats and Moy Park, so got the chicken and burgers well down in price!! ) That was what we wanted like, not everyone's cup of tea ... but it meant we could chat to everyone, and it was so relaxed, which was really nice.

Friends also did a range of desserts for us too ... pavlova, cheescake, banoffee etc.

For our invites we actually created postcards ... a "Hope you'll be here" card! If you're au fait with comps, or have a friend who is, then vistaprint can be good ... esp as they have various offers on where you can get products for free ... if you plan in advance, and a few friends help ... you could get lots of bits free from them, saving oodles of bucks!!

Hope some of that's useful!